Officer’s hunch led to record drug haul

When a gaudy and glittering horse head statue arrived from Mexico last year, one Customs officer’s suspicions proved well placed.

His detective work led to New Zealand’s largest-ever seizure of cocaine as 35kg of the drug worth $14 million was pulled from inside the sculpture.

It also led to American Ronald Cook Senior, 56, and 44-year-old Augustin Suarez-Juarez of Mexico yesterday being found guilty by a High Court at Auckland jury of possessing and attempting to supply the cocaine.

The pair had visited New Zealand in May and June 2016, first to extract the cocaine and second to supply it, Crown Prosecutor David Stevens said during their trial. But instead they walked straight into a high-tech trap set by Customs and police.

It began in May 2016 when Customs carefully repacked the horse head statue with 34 identical-looking packages containing flour and one containing polystyrene, a tracking device and six grams of cocaine. They then sent the head on its way. When Cook and Suarez-Juarez arrived in the country, police had the men bugged and under surveillance as they cut into the sculpture and extracted the packages before taking five to the Crowne Plaza Auckland hotel to meet an alleged buyer, named Henry Anchondo.

When the trio then broke open the package containing the tracking device, they panicked.

Mr Anchondo got away, but Cook and Suarez-Juarez were arrested at the airport trying to flee to Los Angeles.

Both men said during their High Court trial they believed the horse head contained cash, not drugs.

Their lawyers pointed out there was no evidence or recording showing the men had laid eyes on the cocaine or ever been told it was in the statue despite being under constant surveillance.

Cook’s lawyer, Sam Wimsett, said his client was a just simple family man and junior member of the crime syndicate, who was not told about the cocaine.

But Mr Stevens called the men’s claims “lies”, a “sham”, and “absurd” and desperate attempts to evade conviction.

After almost three days of deliberations, the 11-member jury unanimously found Suarez-Juarez guilty, while Cook was found guilty by a majority of 10-to-1. Both men will be sentenced on July 21.